


if i could have you forever, i would, but a lifetime is fine too

by ebedoesit



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Deadlights (IT), Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Graphic Description, Kissing Out of the Deadlights, Love Confessions, M/M, Stanley Uris Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:55:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28739100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebedoesit/pseuds/ebedoesit
Summary: a very short fic that answers the question of what would happen if the It movies actually followed through on the cinematic parallels between the deadlights kiss in ch1 and ch2.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	if i could have you forever, i would, but a lifetime is fine too

**Author's Note:**

> some trigger warnings: descriptions of blood, all general warnings around Pennywise and a vague description around pennywise's heart being crushed.
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this, so I hope you enjoy!

_“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world._ _” - The Song of Achilles_

When they ask him later, how he knew what to do or what took over him, Eddie will tell them it was all instinct. Purely impulsivity and quick reflexes, he would say. Nothing else. 

Eddie has never been one to trust his gut, his mind always racing and his heart too full of anxiety to fully trust himself. He always needed to pause, analyze and assess, before making a decision. Not knowing the outcome, or even knowing he chose the best possible response, made him feel like he was going to break out in hives, prickly and uncomfortable.

But this time, when his gut spoke to him, he answered the call immediately. 

The weight of the wrought iron fence post felt firm and lethal in his hands. Brown eyes darted down to look at it as he could hear Bev’s voice echo in his head, _this thing kills monsters if you believe it does._ Did he believe that _he_ was capable of killing monsters? Eddie wasn’t so sure. But this thing had some real punching power behind it, even if he didn’t believe in it with his whole heart. 

His flashlight fumbled in his hands and clattered to the stone floor. Not stopping, Eddie rounded the corner into It’s lair, damp, dark, and full of surfaces that if he were not careful enough, he would certainly slip.

Regardless he ran. 

Eddie had always been a runner, something about the burn in his chest and repetitive motion of pumping his arms made him feel alive. Free, almost. Running was just about the only physical activity that his mother let him do growing up, something about her believing him to be too breakable to do other activities. It was hard for him not to internalize this, not to agree and believe he was too delicate to do dangerous things. Or even things that were normal for little boys to do, like jumping off the swing set or skinning his knees. Growing up at times, his anxiety around breaking felt so suffocating that it took hours to calm down. 

When Eddie was allowed to be a kid, not a _thing_ so delicate that he would break if you looked at him too hard, he could run fast. He kept up with it as he grew up, running became something that was almost meditative for him. Some days he would take his time, others he would run until his lungs felt like they were on fire and his legs were made of lead.

Eddie always ran quite fast when his heart was in it. 

And in this moment, he didn’t feel all that delicate either. 

Taking long strides as he ran into cavern with a purpose, and the purpose was to _Put this fucking fence post through that asshole’s face_. He wound up, fingers gripping and eager to throw, looking as It’s face seemed to unzip along the mouth to reveal sharp teeth and down the creature’s meaty gullet, three bright white orbs appeared. 

But his eyes didn’t fixate on that. They fixated on Richie.

Richie whose mouth was slack, eyes wide and a glassy white. Arms dangling by his sides. Richie how was floating about 30 feet in the air.

“Rich?” His voice was softer than he thought it would be. 

He thought he was going to yell, call him an idiot for getting caught in whatever those fucking things are, try to wake him up with just the sound of his voice. 

Something in him told him that those efforts would be fruitless.

It wasn’t until Eddie heard the clatter of metal on stone did he realize he dropped the fence post. 

It wasn’t until his feet had left the ground did he realize he had taken off into a dead sprint and leapt to grab Richie, his hand grasped at Richie’s pant leg until he was able to clamor up Richie’s body to wrap his arms around his waist. 

And it wasn’t until his feet touched the ground again, right hand gripping Richie’s shirt and left hand cupping his cheek, did he realize he was kissing him. 

This kiss was not gentle, slow, or soft. It was desperate, eager almost, as Eddie’s lips crashed into Richie’s, his brown eyes squeezed tight. Gasping for breath as tears rolled down his cheeks, hand tangled into the mess that Richie called hair. Kissing Richie felt as easy as breathing, as simple as blinking, and as freeing as running. This was something completely new to him but at the same time it was something so familiar, so comfortable, so easy that he didn’t even get a chance to get butterflies in his stomach. 

Kissing Richie felt like he was breathing for the first time in his life, his lungs crying with relief for the first taste of air they had received in forty years.

He didn’t even register it when he felt Richie’s lips move against his, tilting his head and deepening the kiss. Strong arms wrapped around him and with a quick jerk, both men had toppled over and were on the ground, feet tripping over each other, and Richie was on top of him. Richie’s brown eyes peered down at Eddie, the milky whiteness that was present before almost seemed to fade before Eddie’s very eyes.

The telson of It’s scorpion tail was buried into the stone a foot away from them. The scream that bubbled up in Eddie’s chest was _not_ something he planned on doing, the realization that had Richie not purposefully tumbled them out of the way, that the telson would not be in the stone a foot away but likely through his chest was something that he knew would keep him up for nights on end if they survived this.

It wasn’t until the rock crumbled around the telson and it rose to strike again, did Eddie and Richie realize how much danger they were _still_ in. About to shift their bodies to roll out of the way yet again, a voice that cut through the noise caused them to pause. “Not today, you motherfucker!” 

Turning their heads, they saw a woman with curly black hair confidently run over and in one swift motion pick up the fence post that Eddie had dropped and throw it like a javelin straight into the creature’s unzipped mouth, as though she were Achilles and the eater of worlds was Hector of Troy. Patricia Blum had most certainly hit her mark.

A lava-like substance began to spew from the creature’s mouth as It’s limbs jerked and shrunk in on themselves, until It was as small as they were. And then kept getting smaller. Deflating almost.

After watching this Richie quickly ducked his head down to peck Eddie on the lips and roll off of him to rock to his feet. Richie held a hand out to Eddie. Eddie grasped his hand and was hoisted up to his feet. Not letting go, they walked over to the creature, joining the rest of their friends.

The group looked down at the decrepit figure laid on the ground, the creature’s head pressed tightly against the rock, what looked like white paint chipped off of It’s face, revealing what looked like almost a black void underneath. The creature’s voice was small as it spoke to them, but Eddie did not pay enough attention to what was being said.

He was not afraid.

Eddie could feel Richie squeeze his hand as Mike reached down into the creature’s chest. In his hand he held a black, wet beating heart. It pumped something that looked like blood frantically, droplets spewing to the ground. For a moment they all stared, and hope bubbled into their chest, a nervous laugh escaped through Bev’s lips.

Stan was the first to reach and put his hand over the heart, no hesitancy shown in his movement as he hand was soon stained inky black. It wasn’t long before the rest of the group followed suit, clammy hands piling on top of each other.

Ben start squeezing and it wasn’t long before the rest joined, feeling the almost jelly like substance squish between the gaps in their clasped fingers made Eddie’s stomach queasy. Eddie didn’t even want to look at Richie, knowing full well that Richie would be struggling with it. Instead Eddie looked to the creature on the ground and watched as It seemed to almost disintegrate, a swift wind taking the remnants of their childhood monster out of their sight and up into the sky.

Eddie vaguely wondered what happened to those lights he saw. Did they too turn into dust? Could light flake away like that? He didn’t know. He didn’t know if he would ever truly know or if he even wanted to know.

Eddie stood looking up for a long time. It could have been minutes or hours even. His mind was numb, and his body felt heavy, he knew if he tried to move now it would feel like he was moving in slow motion. He felt like he was in a fog and could almost feel the adrenaline seep out of his body. If he had his inhaler he would use it, but that was burned to shit somewhere in this cavern. It would be absolutely useless to him now.

Slowly he willed himself to take his first step and tore his eyes away from the flakes.

He looked to his best friends, they looked exhausted but also exhilarated. Mike had his arm wrapped around Bill’s shoulders and Bill was holding both of Patty’s hands in his, excitedly talking about how cool she looked throwing the fence post. Stan stood next to her, his hand resting in her back pocket, a small smug smile on his face. He was proud. Ben and Bev were sitting nearby, Ben was soaking part of his shirt in the water, attempting to clean what looked like blood from Bev’s face. Bev was talking quietly, Eddie couldn’t make out what she was saying, and he was never that good at reading lips, he would have to ask them later what they were talking about.

They each looked haggard, scratches and bruises coated their bodies. But their eyes remained bright, no fear clouding them.

Squeezing Richie’s hand in his, Eddie cleared his throat and said “Alright assholes. How exactly do we get out of this hellhole?”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it! feel free to leave a kudos/comment. if you want to see more tweets/thoughts like this, take a look at my twitter! @ebedoesit


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